5.24.2002

[37, 38] This & that: I won't attempt to reproduce the Vietnamese here, but when I was beginning my lessons in the language I had a devil of a time getting down the difference between this clock & that clock, for instance. In any case, W is right, these words are not names in themselves, but modifiers of names, i.e., what in grammar we call adjectives. But, just to think this through: couldn't we conceive of this & that as naming spatial relationship between an object & a speaker? It is an important & useful distinction that seems pretty fundamental. Well, just thinking out loud here--I await the real philosopher's reading of these paragraphs.